Once Again, Sylvester Stallone Brings Rambo to the Rescue ; Woody’s Dream

With Rambo (Lionsgate, $29.95), Sylvester Stallone revives his John Rambo character (just as he revived Rocky Balboa), also directing and co-writing this story. It finds the intrepid warrior living a peaceful life in a rural Thai village where he transports people on his old PT boat and catches snakes.

But when some Christian aid workers, whom Rambo had ferried into Myanmar, are kidnapped by local soldiers, he springs back into more violent action when the missionaries’ minister enlists Rambo to help him rescue his flock in the midst of a deadly civil war.

A two-disc Special Edition ($34.98) includes such bonus features as a commentary by Stallone, deleted scenes and six short documentaries on subjects such as the history of the Rambo character and the making of this movie.

In Woody Allen’s third straight movie made in London (after the terrific Match Point and the disappointing Scoop), Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor star in Cassandra’s Dream (Genius, $24.95) as brothers who both need money and agree to help their wealthy but crooked uncle (Tom Wilkinson) deal with his business “problem.” The film is named for a boat that the brothers pick up along the way, although the movie itself failed to float at the box office. There are no bonus features on the DVD.

Mexican strings

The hit of the 2007 Providence Latin American Film Festival, the Mexican-made El Violin (Film Movement, $24.95) may sound sweetly innocent from its title, but it’s a violent, bare-knuckle thriller that’s a standoff between an army troop and secret guerrilla fighters in a small farming community.

An old man and his son seem to be itinerant musicians. But they’re really weapons smugglers who’ve hidden their stash in a violin case in a cornfield in the village which is now overrun with snoopy government troops.

What follows is a tricky cat-and-mouse game, played subtly but with ever-growing intensity, each side wary of the other. A strong cast helps keep the intensity level at a fever pitch. It can be ordered from www.filmmovement.com.

Also new this week

Find your dark side in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Genius, $14.95); take all you can from an armored truck hijacking in The Take (Sony, $24.96); mop up a crime scene with Samuel L. Jackson in Cleaner (Sony, $24.96); get over the grief with John Cusack in Grace Is Gone (Genius, $28.95), and bet on a fixed race with Forest Whitaker in The Air I Breathe (Image, $27.98).

Also, a ship loaded with nuclear waste fuels the thrills in Typhoon (Genius, $24.95); get your kung fu thrills with Heroes of the East or Come Drink With Me (Genius, $19.95 each); delve into a black comedy about drug abuse in Most High (Dokument, $24.98); awaken and evil specter in The Chair (Lionsgate, $26.98).

From TV

Back again are: Meryl Streep and James Woods in Nazi Germany in Holocaust (CBS/Paramount, $29.99); The Color Honeymooners Collection #3 (MPI, 39.98); Jackass Presents: Mat Hoffman’s Tribute to Evel Knievel (MTV/Paramount, $24.99); Rawhide: Season Three, Volume One (CBS/Paramount, $42.99); Gunsmoke: The Second Season, Volume Two (CBS/Paramount, $39.99); Monsterquest: The Complete Season One (A&E, $44.95); Lipstick Jungle: Season One (Universal, $29.98).

For children

Aimed at the small fry are Scholastic Storybook Treasures: Diary of a Spider . . . and More Cute Critter Stories (Scholastic, $14.95); Cory in the House: Newt & Improved Edition (Disney, $19.99); Minutemen (Disney, $26.99); A Panda Is Born (Genius, $14.95).

Documentaries

Learn about where dinosaurs really came from in The Four-Winged Dinosaur: Microraptors and the Bird Origin Debate (WGBH, $19.95); learn about the ravages of war in Darfur Now (Warner, $4.99); Muhammad: The Last Prophet (MPI, $29.98); the three-disc The World War Collection (Lionsgate, $29.98).

Golf

Relive golfing’s brightest moments with the pros in Highlights of the 2008 Masters Tournament (Monarch, $14.95).

Gay days

Celebrate Gay Pride Month with the gay surfing drama Shelter (Genius, $24.95), the historic films Tchaikovsky, Daphne (BBC, $19.98), The Buddha of Suburbia (BBC, $29.98) or the musical Stonewall (BBC, $19.98).

Collections

Get a new spin on the classic western when James Stewart saddles up in the six-disc James Stewart Westerns Collection (Universal, $39.98) which includes the classic Destry Rides Again, with Marlene Dietrich, and Winchester ’73, plus Bend of the River, The Far Country, The Night Passage, The Rare Breed, a western comedy co- starring Maureen O’Hara.

Stir up some laughs in The Three Stooges Collection, Volume Two: 1937-1939 (Sony, $24.96); pursue the twisters through Tornado Alley with bonus features in Twister 2-Disc Special Edition (Warner, $20.97).

With Journal Wire Reports

Michael

Janusonis

Tom Wilkinson, left, tries to convince nephews Ewan McGregor, center, and Colin Farrell to help with his “business” problem in a scene from Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream. Weinstein Company / Keith Hamshere

Sylvester Stallone resurrects his John Rambo character in the action-thriller, Rambo. Lionsgate

Don Angel Tavita stars as an elderly villager whose violin- playing hides a murderous mission as a member of a guerrilla movement in the Mexican film, El Violin.

(c) 2008 Providence Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.